‘Deadpool 2’ Director Eyed for ‘Fast and Furious’ Spinoff

On Wednesday, fans were treated to a new foul-mouthed trailer for Deadpool 2. Today, it sounds as if director David Leitch will springboard from that franchise to another ultra-lucrative movie series.

TheWrap is reporting that filmmaker David Leitch, who also co-directed the John Wick movies, is being eyed by Universal Pictures for its untitled Fast and Furious spinoff. The new diesel-fueled movie is said to center on Dwayne Johnson‘s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw. Getcha popcorn ready.

The script is being handled by Chris Morgan, who has worked on every Fast and Furious movie since 2006’s Tokyo Drift. The movie will see Shaw and Hobbs enjoy their own adventure apart from Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the rest of the gang.

Last year’s The Fate of the Furious took in $1.2 billion worldwide, while 2015’s Furious 7 earned a staggering $1.5 billion. Both films rank within the top 15 highest-grossing movies ever and, all told, the franchise has earned $5.1 billion worldwide. That’s roughly equivalent to the GDP of Sierra Leone.

Leitch cut his teeth in Hollywood as a fight designer, stunt coordinator and second unit director and has actually worked with Statham on four previous projects including The Mechanic and Parker.

On top of the popular and profitable John Wick series, Leitch also helmed last year’s Atomic Blonde starring Charlize Theron. Though the film wasn’t a massive hit ($96 million worldwide against a $30 million budget) and drew mixed reactions, it was praised for featuring some of the most inventive action sequences of the year.

Add that touch to Deadpool and Fast and Furious, and fans may have one hell of a fun ride on their hands.